Tuesday, January 18, 2011

01/18/2011
One truly wonders just who is the President of the Republic since apparently, Noynoy Aquino does not appoint any candidate to a high ranking and sensitive post without first having a non-elected individual vet the presidential choices.

Incredibly, because unheard of, we appear to have a defeated vice presidential candidate vetting presidential appointments.

From recent reports, Noynoy’s choice for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairmanship, Noynoy’s election lawyer, Sixto Brillantes, had to be approved first by defeated VP bet Mar Roxas, before Noynoy signed his appointment papers.

It will be recalled that it was Brillantes, and not the Palace, that had announced he had been picked by Noynoy to be the Comelec chairman. No one in the Palace confirmed this Friday..... MORE

01/18/2011
Truth and transparency are non-existent under the Noynoy administration, despite these being mouthed as mantras almost daily, as though it is trying hard to convince the general public that it is indeed a clean and honest government.

Just recently, Noynoy Aquino was caught in another lie — and about his new toy — the German sportscar, Porsche, which he said was “third hand” and only cost him P4.5 million.

About the only truth on this is perhaps that the car is white. It is said to be a 2007 model 997, Porsche 911 Turbo.

Apparently, Noynoy’s Porsche is hardly “entry level,” apart from which, sportscar owners said that the car, described as the 3.6-liter, twin turbo, six-cylinder Boxer engine and an 480 horsepower, the market price is at least P7 million to P9 million. One can’t get it for P4.5 million..... MORE

01/18/2011
ISTANBUL — Terrorized by mounting extremist attacks, more and more Iraqi Christians are fleeing in panic to neighboring Muslim-majority Turkey, among them lone minors sent away by desperate parents.

In Istanbul, a tiny Chaldean Catholic community has embraced the refugees, serving as their first point of shelter before the United Nations or local civic groups extend a helping hand.

The number of arrivals, available statistics show, has sharply increased since October 31 when gunmen stormed a Baghdad church, killing 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security guards, in an attack claimed by al-Qaeda’s local affiliate.

“We saw many newcomers after the attack. We saw they had made no preparation and had no savings,” said Gizem Demirci, an activist at the Association for Solidarity with Asylum-Seekers and Migrants..... MORE

01/18/2011
How to forget “Ondoy” and “Pepeng,” two super-typhoons that came close to each other in the last quarter of 2009, isn’t possible. Close to a thousand dead according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), damage to property put at P16-plus billion, to infrastructure at P4-plus billion, to agriculture at P11-plus billion — figures like these stay in your mind.

Around that time we found out that much earlier in 2008, there had been Typhoon “Frank,” which hit mostly Iloilo province, where some 500 were said to have perished, thousands injured, hundreds of thousands evacuated, 2 million others affected by damages to houses, infrastructure and livelihood.

It was belated information that filtered out only in the thick of Ondoy and Pepeng; Typhoon Frank when it was ravaging Iloilo to put the city 80 percent underwater didn’t register much in Metro Manila’s chismis scale. It made an impression only when pictures were let out in the Internet to match against those taken of Ondoy’s and Pepeng’s, and the partying set went, “Ay, grabe, how come we didn’t know?”.... MORE

01/18/2011
The news from Arizona on Jan. 8 was appalling. Six persons, including a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge, lay dead, and a dozen or so were wounded – including the apparent prime target, Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Gibbons, who was shot in the head — as a lone gunman walked into the venue where Gibbons was meeting her constituents and opened up with a semi-automatic pistol.

I caught the news on BBC World on the Sunday morning Philippine time, just as Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was heading a press conference. Visibly struggling with his anger, Dupnik pointed the finger at the “vitriol” which had poured from the mouths of some media practitioners in recent times, contributing to a climate of intolerance in which a young man with a history of mental problems might be pushed over the edge.

Most directly, Dupnik’s remarks concerned the acrimonious atmosphere in which last year Arizona passed an immigration act which most liberal opinion considered would encourage the abuse of the civil rights of Hispanics, and legislation banning ethnic studies in the state’s schools..... MORE

01/18/2011
KARACHI — The lifeless bodies of two tiny babies are being given their final bath before burial in Karachi, after they were left to die in the southern Pakistani city’s garbage dumps.

“They can only have been one or two days old,” says volunteer worker Mohammad Saleem, pointing at the two small corpses being gently washed by his colleagues at a charity’s morgue.

In the conservative Muslim nation, where the birth of children outside of marriage is condemned and adultery is a crime punishable by death under strict interpretations of Islamic law, infanticide is a crime on the rise.

More than 1,000 infants — most of them girls — were killed or abandoned to die in Pakistan last year according to conservative estimates by the Edhi Foundation, a charity working to reverse the grim trend..... MORE

01/18/2011
LUANDA — An intoxicated boy shuffles along a teeming street in Luanda casually gulping vapors from a plastic bottle that contains gasoline, children’s drug of choice in Africa’s top oil-producing country.

Earth’s “black gold” has fast-tracked Angola from the ravages of war to the heights of an emerging regional economy but in this capital city its main derivative has become a gateway drug that brings misery to poor communities.

Easy access to gasoline, typically sold from homes in lemonade bottles, has given rise to substance abuse — with addicts as young as 10-years-old, in a country where rehabilitation resources are scarce.

Users are mainly homeless children and delinquents, whose families bore the brunt of Angola’s nearly three-decade civil war which ended in 2002..... MORE

Despite the odds, with President Aquino and the Senate leadership thumbing down discussions on Charter change (Cha-cha) at this time, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has set the ball rolling on the matter Cha-cha on the Senate, insisting on the need the determine the public pulse and the necessity, if there is indeed any, of amending the 24-year-old Constitution.

Santiago announced this move yesterday, the first day of the resumption of Congress’ regular sessions after the Christmas break.

Santiago, chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws, emphasized that there is nothing to prevent her, whether in the existing laws or the Rules of the Senate from conducting public hearings on Cha-cha even if the Senate leadership already declared that a change in the Constitution is not among the upper chamber’s priority agenda, although Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile is for Cha-cha and believes the 1987 Charter must be changed.

Santiago dismissed opposition to Chacha aired by Aquino saying that “although he already said it is not one of the priorities of his administration, we must remember that he belongs to the Executive branch. His statements do not tie the legislative branch and the legislative branch always constitutes the majority of the senators and majority of the congressmen. So we will not know unless we have heard from the public. That’s precisely the nature of public hearings, to allow all stakeholders to give their piece on the matter,” she told reporters in a press conference..... MORE

Malacañang yesterday took to defending former Armed Forces and other ex-AFP chiefs, along with the past defense secretaries challenging those who tag them as having been involved in the plunder of military funds in the case against retired Maj Gen. Carlos Garcia, by showing evidence on their partici-pation of the plunder.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said these matters are up to the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to consider whether there is evidence to link the officials concerned.

“The Sandiganbayan can only rule based on the evidence presented in court. So we’ll see whether the Office of the Special Prosecutor would even consider that or if there is any evidence (leading) to that effect,” Lacierda said in a post-briefing interview.

Lacierda deferred com-menting on the statements recently issued by Para-ñaque Rep. Roilo Golez who said former AFP Chief of Staff and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes could be held liable since it was during his time that Garcia allegedly was able to plunder millions from AFP’s bank accounts..... MORE

Even with defeated vice presidential candidate and former Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas’ appointment as President Aquino’s chief troubleshooter, both are likely to fail in solving the administration’s problems, members of the House minority yesterday said.

While acknowledging that it is the prerogative and right of Aquino to appoint whoever he feels will help him govern the country better, opposition lawmakers yesterday said the appointment of Roxas as Aquino’s chief helper is doomed to fail, just like his benefactor.

In a text message, Zambales Rep. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay said that although Aquino’s appointment of Roxas was a prior commitment wherein the President would be giving a larger chunk of presidential responsibilities, she was not certain that Roxas would do well as the designated troubleshooter of the administration.

“It’s probably a prior arrangement they made during the campaign period. I’m not sure if Mar will be effective as the first thing he has to troubleshoot is the infighting within the Cabinet, the jockeying for juicy positions of each faction (Balay and Samar), the political payback that has to be paid to Aquino supporters, the vested interests that have to be protected and the influence peddling on all sides,” said Magsaysay..... MORE

Troubleshooter Manuel Roxas II appeared to have launched his new role in the Palace by making trouble through meddling in the recent appointment of veteran election lawyer Sixto Brillantes as Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman by meeting with him personally after telling President Aquino he is against the posting because Brillantes was the lawyer of his potential rivals for the 2016 presidential race, Vice President Jejomar Binay and Sen. Francis Escudero.

Roxas’ animosity toward Brillantes immediately elicited reactions from legislators saying that the Liberal Party (LP) president has no reason to object to Brillantes’ appointment.

“I think he will be objective. Given his vast experience as election lawyer, his challenge is how to introduce electoral reforms to make Comelec credible,” Roxas partymate Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said..... MORE

01/18/2011
Can President Aquino be accused of conspicuous consumption?

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago yesterday posed this question when sought for a reaction on the reported latest acquisition of the Chief Executive, a P4.5-million 2007 Porsche, said to have a market value of P7 to P9 million even if pre-owned.

“You know we have a provision in the Civil Code, that if the country is facing a national emergency, you can go to court and prohibit a rich person from flaunting his wealth. So I don’t know if other people might want to avail themselves of this remedy under the Civil Code,” she said.

The lawmaker, however, steered clear from issuing her opinion on the matter, being a former trial court judge, on mere speculation..... MORE

Five former health officials are asking the Supreme Court (SC) to order the insertion of warnings on cigarettes as well as all other tobacco products.

The five are Drs. Esperanza Cabral, Francisco Duque III, Alberto Romualdez Jr., Jaime Galvez-Tan and Alfredo Bengzon.They filed with the high court a motion seeking to intervene in the case of tobacco firm Mighty Corp. against Administrative Order (AO) 2010-0013 issued by Cabral in May last year.

AO 2010-0013 requires tobacco manufacturers to replace the written warnings currently featured on their cigarette packs with picture warnings to show terrifying images of the damage smoking can cause.
It also prohibits manufacturers from using misleading words on cigarette packs like “mild,” “light,” “ultra-light,” and “low tar.”

Tobacco-related diseases — stroke, cancer, heart attacks, tuberculosis, among other diseases — comprise seven out of the 10 primary causes of mortality in the country, the proponents said..... MORE

01/18/2011
After spending seven years in prison on coup d’etat charges, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV was sworn into office by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and was finally able to attend his first Senate session yesterday.

Trillanes, who was granted provisional liberty pending the approval of his amnesty for participating in the 2003 “Oakwood” mutiny and the 2007 Peninsula Hotel siege, is currently under the custody of the Senate.

He was accompanied to the podium by Senators Tito Sotto, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla, who witnessed his reaffirmation of oath-taking before Enrile. Trillanes took his oath of office when he won the election in 2007.

“Of course I’m excited,” Trillanes said when asked if he was excited about his first Senate session. “I’m just going to observe the first few weeks. I will be coming in as a student, actually and I won’t pretend to be an expert on these things.”.... MORE